Saving on copier or printer toner is one simple way to help your business's bottom line. In fact, some companies have decided to make the Century Gothic font their default font in order save money, since printing with that font takes about 30 percent less ink than other fonts, such as Arial. In terms of either activating a toner saver setting or lightening the image print, there is a difference in function and in result.

Background

The major difference between the toner saver setting -- also known as draft or economy mode -- and lightening an image print is that the toner saver is all about reducing the area to which toner is applied. When a printer or copier puts text or an image on a page, it does so by applying toner or ink across a certain amount of "dots" in an overall printing matrix. The toner saver setting reduces the number of "dots" that get toner. Lightening the image print, on the other hand, spreads ink across the full area but with less ink density.

Appearance

Although the toner saver setting might give a document a lighter appearance, the toner density actually hasn't changed, so the toner itself isn't lighter. Rather, less toner is applied to the page, thus making the toner appear lighter and even giving it a "dotty" appearance. However, for documents that don't need to be stellar displays of art but are merely for basic office use, this setting is one way to save you money on toner. Opting to lighten the toner density, on the other hand, will also use less toner but without the dotty appearance that is typical in a toner saver mode.

Speed

Since the printer or copier doesn't apply as much toner in toner saver mode, not as much time is needed to perform a single print job. Therefore, toner saver mode not only saves you toner but also time since it is quicker. Merely lightening the toner density, however, doesn't save any time because toner must still be applied across the typical page area. Be aware, though, that some printers might have a "toner saver" setting on them that isn't such a setting in the truest sense -- at least in terms of being in "draft" or "dot-reducing" mode, according to the website TechRadar.

Application

How you activate your printer's or copier's toner saver mode depends on your particular model. Some might have a toner saver button directly on the machine's control panel. Others will require that you choose the toner saver, or draft, mode on the "Print" page where you select the number of copies you want, the layout and so forth. Once again, a toner saver button on your machine's control panel could also actually refer to just lightening toner or ink density. In fact, on many copy machines, it's common to see "Lighten" and "Darken" buttons, which also refer to lightening toner density.

References

About the Author

Aaron Charles began writing about "pragmatic art" in 2006 for an online arts journal based in Minneapolis, Minn. After working for telecom giant Comcast and traveling to Oregon, he's written business and technology articles for both online and print publications, including Salon.com and "The Portland Upside."